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Rose Marie helped Morey Amsterdam get cast on The Dick Van Dyke Show
The two actors were more than costars; they were friends.
With every good thing that enters your life, it should also be said that you should work hard to pay it forward and help others get the opportunities available to you. Joy and success are best when shared with others, especially if they're friends that you've helped along the way.
As a child star, Rose Marie didn't need any help achieving success. But as an adult, when she received the call that would eventually lead to a regular role on The Dick Van Dyke Show, she assumed at first that she was being auditioned for another popular series, The Danny Thomas Show. Both The Danny Thomas Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show were strengthened by the support of entertainment icon Sheldon Leonard, so when he requested an opportunity to see Rose Marie, the actor assumed it was regarding a potential recurring or guest appearance on The Danny Thomas Show.
In fact, according to Marie's memoir, Hold the Roses, when told she was going to audition for The Dick Van Dyke Show, Marie asked, "What's a Dick Van Dyke?"
Despite this, series creator Carl Reiner had a very good idea of who Rose Marie was. "Sheldon told me if I wanted the best, I should get Rose Marie," he said. While Marie was grateful for the role and Reiner's confidence in her, she used the moment as an opportunity not to help herself, but to help another actor, Morey Amsterdam.
Marie and Amsterdam's friendship went beyond The Dick Van Dyke Show. "Morey and I have been friends since I was about ten years old," she wrote. "[Morey] was always happy. In all the years I knew him, I never heard him say a bad word about anything." Marie recommended Reiner cast Amsterdam for the role of the third writer, alongside her and Dick Van Dyke's character. "He is a writer and a comic and he knows every joke ever written," she said to Reiner. Amsterdam and Marie's friendship would be further cemented and strengthened when they both became stars together.
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He was 87, less than two months from his 88th when he passed away.
(Dec. 14, 1908 Chicago, IL - Oct. 28, 1996 Los Angeles, CA)
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